Vince McMahon told me today that WWE is moving Monday Night Raw to the Staples Center in L.A. on Memorial Day. The organization has scheduled a make-up event for Aug. 7 at the Denver Coliseum for fans who have tickets to the original show that was slated for the Pepsi Center.

Kroenke Sports Enterprises, owner of the Pepsi Center and the Denver Nuggets, bumped the WWE after the NBA scheduled Game 4 of the Western Conference finals between the Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers for Monday night.

McMahon was clearly still irked at Kroenke Wednesday afternoon.

“We respect our audience and we always do the right thing for them, unlike the way WWE has been treated by Kroenke’s management. We’ve been treated so shabbily,” McMahon said. “Not only have they thrown us out, they’ve tried to trample on top of us after they threw us out.”

He said Kroenke offered to pay any incremental costs WWE would have incurred as a result of the scheduling conflict only if WWE agreed to a joint press release.

He promised to poke fun at Stan Kroenke and the Nuggets during Monday night’s show at Staples. He plans to stage a wrestling match-up between the Nuggets and Lakers and a confrontation between himself and an actor posing as Stan the Man.

In mid-April, Kroenke Sports Enterprises allowed World Wrestling Entertainment to book the Pepsi Center for an event set to take place on the evening of Monday, May 25.

Problem is, with the Nuggets fully engaged in an NBA title run, the Pepsi Center is now scheduled to host Game 4 of the Western Conference finals that night.

WWE chairman Vince McMahon blamed Stan Kroenke for not believing his team was good enough to still be playing in mid-May. After all, the Nuggets hadn’t advanced past the first round in more than a decade.

A WWE spokesman said Pepsi Center officials sent the organization a contract for securing the May 25 date on April 15 – the final night of the NBA’s regular season and the night the Nuggets secured the No. 2 seed in the West.

WWE says it has already sold more than 10,000 tickets for the event. The organization expects a sellout, with tickets ranging from $20 to $70.

Meanwhile, the NBA says the Western Conference finals will be played on Monday. Period.

“The Nuggets and the WWE understand that the date of Game 4 of the Western Conference finals cannot be changed,” NBA senior vice president Mike Bass said. “We are confident that the Pepsi Center and the WWE will resolve their scheduling conflict.”

David joined The Denver Post in 1999, his second go-round in the Mile High City. Since then he’s covered a variety of topics – from human services to consumer affairs – most always with an investigative bent. Currently he does investigations and banking.